to John Brown
25–28 October 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: StEdNL, UCCL 01279)
slc
Dear Doctor Brown 1explanatory note
We had grown so very anxious about you that it was a great pleasure to see the dear, familiar hand writing again, but the contents of the letter did make us inexpressibly sad— We have talked so much since about your coming to us,— Would not the change do you good? Could you not trust yourself with us? We would do everything to make you comfortable and happy that we could—and you have so many admirers in America that would be so happy and proud to welcome you—Is it not possible for you to come? Could not your son bring you? Perhaps the entire change would give you a new and healthier lease of life—
Our children are both well and happy I wish that you could see them, Susie is very motherly to the little one—
Mr Clemens is hard at work on a new book now 2explanatory note —he has a new book of sketches recently out which he is going to send you in a few days, most of the sketches are old, but some few are new— 3explanatory note
Oh Doctor Brown how can you speak of your life as a waisted one! What you have written has alone done an immense amount of good, and I know for I speak from experience that one must get good every time they meet and chat with you— I recieve good every time I even think of you— Can a life that produces such an effect on others be a wasted life?
I feel that while you live the world is sweeter and better—
You ask if Clara is “queer and wistful and commanding” like your Susie, we think she is more queer, (more quaint) perhaps more commanding, but not nearly so wistful in her ways as “your Susie”— The nurse that we had with us in Edinburgh had to leave us to take care of a◇ sister ill with consumption, we have had ever since a quiet lady like German girl— 4explanatory note I must leave a place for Mr C.— Do think about coming to us— Give my love to your sister and your son—
Affectionately
Livy L. Clemens
Dear Doctor, if you & your Son Jock only would run over here! What a welcome we would give you!—and besides, you would forget cares & the troubles that come of them. To forget pain is to be painless; to forget care is to be rid of it; to go abroad is to accomplish both. Do try the prescription!
P. P. S. I hope you will excuse Mr Clemens P. S. to me, it is characteristic for
him to put it right on the
letter—
Livy L. C.
5explanatory note
P. S.
Livy, you haven’t signed your letter.
Don’t forget that.
S. L. C.
The Clemenses answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which, allowing for transit from Edinburgh, they presumably received around 25 October and responded to within a few days:
Brown alluded to his sister, Isabella; his son, John; “Sheriff” Alexander Nicolson; Veitch’s Hotel in Edinburgh; and Ellen Bermingham (see note 4). He also mentioned several photographs: one of Susy by Van Aken, sent in a letter of 4 September 1874 but otherwise unidentified; one of the “newcomer,” Clara, probably taken in November 1874 and enclosed in a now-lost letter; and the “historical group” image taken in Edinburgh in August 1873 by John Moffat, of the Clemenses with Brown and Clara Spaulding (see L5 , 662; 19 or 20 Nov 74 to Parish, n. 2click to open link).
The American Publishing Company sent Brown a cloth-bound copy of Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old on 6 December (APC 1876).
Brown had met Ellen (Nellie) Bermingham, Susy’s nurse, when she traveled with the Clemenses to Edinburgh in August 1873 ( L5 , 371, 431, 641 n. 4). The “German girl” was Rosina Hay.
Olivia responded to Clemens’s “P. S.,” but inserted her “P. P. S.” above it for lack of room, and then drew a diagonal line on the left and a short line under her name to separate her comment from his.
MS, Accession 6289/23, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh (StEdNL).
L6 , 570–72; Brown, 357–58.
purchased in 1974.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.